Wednesday 20th December 2017

I go to the cinema regularly. When I do, I keep a record of what I saw and write a short comment about the film. This is the list of those films. Some of these I went to see multiple times, but I’ll just list them by first viewing.

I’ve not listed films seen outside the cinema, because I don’t note those down (and there’s no way I can remember them all).

JANUARY

Manchester by the Sea – Walked out half way through. I thought it was ok, but it was one of those days when I wasn’t in the mood for an onslaught of misery. Haven’t tried to watch it again.

Passengers – Actually quite an enjoyable film to go and see on a dreary January night.

Silence – I had no preconceptions of this, and was very impressed. It’s very long, and the topic isn’t something I’d usually go for, but I thought this was a masterpiece.

Split – Rubbish.

La La Land – Loved it, didn’t think I would. Looks great on the big screen.

Jackie – Got bored. Walked out.

FEBRUARY

Lion – I thought I’d hate this. How wrong was I? For a film about a guy using Google Earth a lot, it’s surprisingly compelling.

Lego Batman – Watched this on a Sunday afternoon with a fairly decent hangover. Maybe for that reason, found this to be too hectic to be enjoyable.

The Founder – Actually pretty good.

Hidden Figures – Better than expected.

Fences – Denzel Washington indulgence.

John Wick 2 – Not as good as the first one.

Moonlight – First time I went to see this, the power in the cinema cut off after 30 mins and didn’t come back on. I went back a week later and thought it’s pretty good. Not sure if worth an Oscar.

Toni Erdmann – So weird. So funny. So thought provoking. Watch this if you haven’t already.

MARCH

Free Fire – Bloody good fun.

Logan – Just from the law of large numbers, eventually someone had to make a good superhero film. This one only spoiled by the person in the cinema who insisted on talking very loudly to the person next to him.

Kong: Skull Island – meh.

APRIL

Get Out – Very very good.

Power Rangers – Bad. So bad.

Their Finest – Saw in on a Sunday evening to while away some time. It served that purpose well.

Lady Macbeth – Didn’t know anything about this before seeing it. Thought it was interesting, dark and really compelling.

MAY

Colossal – Sort of silly science fiction, very good fun.

Alien: Covenant – meh

JUNE

The Red Turtle – Beautiful. This is a film with no dialogue that manages to say more than a lot of the films on this list. Well worth a watch.

My Cousin Rachel – Saw this on a Friday afternoon. Left after half an hour because I was too tired to concentrate. Watched it again later in the year whilst on a flight, and thought it was pretty good.

Baby Driver – Huge fun, and great on the big screen.

JULY

It Comes At Night – A decent horror film. However I had to think hard to remember what it is, so clearly not that good.

The Beguiled – Very good. Very tense, you don’t quite know where it’s going to lead which makes it really compelling.

War For The Planet Of The Apes – Meh.

Dunkirk – Absolutely phenomenal. Even though you know how it ends, amazingly tense the whole way through. Excellent sound design, awesome cinematography. I saw it twice on an Imax screen, and think it really benefits from the big screen.

AUGUST

A Ghost Story – This was phenomenal. An, er, haunting look at relationships, loss, grief, and all that big stuff.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets – This had poor reviews and basically tanked at the Box Office. I can’t for the life of me figure out why. It’s quite funny, very odd, spectacular to see on screen and overall really, really enjoyable. People go on about Hollywood/action films all being the same (shit) superhero franchises done in the same way time after time, so it’s annoying they don’t go and see something so different when it somehow gets made.

SEPTEMBER

Kingsman: The Golden Circle – Not good. It’s as if they didn’t understand why the first one worked.

OCTOBER

Blade Runner 2049 – Great sequel. Worth seeing on the big screen.

The Death of Stalin – OK, but not great.

NOVEMBER

Ingrid Goes West – Very funny.

DECEMBER

Murder on the Orient Express – OK, not great. Branagh a little OTT as Poirot.

The Disaster Artist – If you know anything about The Room then you need to see this. Oh, hi Mark.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Good but not great, and not as good as Rogue One (or, in fact, the first Star Wars film from 1977). The ending feels a bit “tacked on”; although I think it was the right ending, the scenes leading up to it could have been paced better to lead you into it. Could also drop 30 mins off the running time without losing anything important.

That’s 39 films seen at the cinema this year. As I mentioned at the top there are a few I saw multiple times (1 film I went to see 3 times…), so that’s 40-odd visits to the cinema this year.

2 Comments:

Saturday 30th December 2017, 6:37 am

Do you have a cineworld unlimited card? I do. I was slightly excited to read your films and compare with mine seen, and respective thoughts or differences in taste. I totted up my list recently and I think it’s about 30 (all single viewings), but I hope to improve on that this year.